In
the wake of the death of the man responsible for most of President John
F. Kennedy’s soaring public phrases, a reassessment is needed of the
Kennedy administration, which has been consistently overrated by the
media and public. Theodore C. Sorensen was a brilliant writer – who
put Kennedy on the political map and invented the image of the future
president as an idealist by ghostwriting Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage in 1956 and coming up with the catchy
phrases “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans”
and the somewhat Orwellian “Ask not what your country can do for
you, ask what you can do for your country.” Yet Sorensen said
that his most satisfying writing assignment was a carefully written
letter from Kennedy to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev pressing for
a peaceful solution to the most dangerous crisis in American and world
history – the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.

And
the media has largely accepted Sorensen’s view of the crisis:
Although the Soviets and the American military were blustering and thirsting
for war, Kennedy successfully searched for a way to avoid the end of
humanity via nuclear holocaust. Sorensen reflected, “The hawks
were rising. Kennedy could keep control of his own government,
but one never knew whether the advocates of bombing and invasion might
somehow get the upper hand.” As if JFK didn’t have the last
word on an invasion of Cuba to remove Soviet-installed nuclear missiles.

Moreover,
a U.S.-sponsored invasion caused the Soviets to begin deploying the
missiles 90 miles from the U.S. coast in the first place. The
Kennedy administration’s reckless behavior toward Fidel Castro’s
Cuba culminated in the botched Bay of Pigs invasion by U.S.-backed Cuban
exiles – an attempt to overthrow a dictator that the CIA had originally
assisted in coming to power. To prevent another U.S.-initiated
invasion of the island – unbelievably, even after the first fiasco,
the administration was planning to use U.S. force,s and the Soviets became
aware of such plans – and to answer the deployment of U.S. nuclear missiles
near the Soviet Union in Turkey, Japan, and Italy and the buildup of
American nuclear weapons much above Soviet levels, Khrushchev began
to deploy similar missiles in Cuba.

U.S.
intelligence had picked up Soviet activity in Cuba but was unsure if
nuclear missiles were being installed. But Kennedy was under pressure
to act tough on communism before the 1962 congressional elections because
of the Bay of Pigs debacle and his moderate responses to the Berlin
Crisis, the coalition government formed with the communists in Laos,
and Khrushchev’s blustering at the Vienna summit. JFK, coming
from a competitive family that expected its men to display machismo,
then made a reckless speech saying that the “gravest issues would
arise” if such a Soviet missile deployment by Cuba was made and that
the United States would do whatever was necessary to protect its security.

Yet
the Soviets adding a few nuclear-tipped missiles located in Cuba did
not alter the vast U.S. nuclear superiority over the Soviets (especially
with U.S nuclear missiles in Italy, Japan, and Turkey). And because
no reliable large-scale missile defense system existed (and still doesn’t),
even before the installation of missiles in Cuba, Soviet missiles fired
from the USSR could incinerate the United States. With the missile
deployment off U.S. shores, the only thing that changed was that a few
Soviet missiles would reach the United States slightly sooner to begin
the unstoppable Armageddon.

Kennedy
and his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara both privately acknowledged
that the Soviet missiles in Cuba didn’t significantly alter the nuclear
balance between the superpowers. McNamara regarded the entire
affair as a “domestic political problem” caused by JFK’s tough
rhetoric rather than a strategic threat to U.S. security. John
Kenneth Galbraith, Kennedy’s ambassador to India, later said that
JFK’s political needs motivated him to take almost any risk to get
the missiles out of Cuba.

Even
Kennedy himself admitted to Gen. Maxwell Taylor:

“We
weren’t going to [allow the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba].
Last month I should have said that we don’t care. But when we
said we’re not going to [allow the missile deployment] and then they
go ahead and do it, and then we do nothing, then I would think that
our risks increase…. What difference does it make? They’ve
got enough to blow us up now anyway.”

What
JFK really meant was that his administration’s political risks increased,
not American security risks. In short, JFK unnecessarily risked
thermonuclear Armageddon to save face and to look stronger for the upcoming
congressional elections.

Furthermore,
to get the Soviets to withdraw the missiles and end the crisis, JFK
pledged not to invade Cuba and to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.
Because the latter JFK pledge was kept secret, the world perceived the
Soviets to have backed down. But Khrushchev could have rightly
claimed that he had gotten the best of Kennedy. Nonetheless, Soviet
humiliation over the Cuban Missile Crisis led to a rapid buildup of
their nuclear forces to rough parity with the United States by the early
1970s. This all-out nuclear arms race made the planet much less
safe.

Thus,
JFK, with the help of Sorensen, did eventually defuse the greatest
security crisis in American and world history – but one that Kennedy
largely created himself. Many historians and other scholars consider
JFK the most overrated person in U.S. history; that is probably being
kind. Because he almost incinerated the world for no good reason
(as if ever there could be one for taking such a risk), I rank him as
one of the country’s worst presidents in my book Recarving Rushmore:
Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty.

You're probably right seeing how under Woodrows watch he actually sent people to die in WW1 and helped bring about the FED amongst other evils. Still, JFK, the "product" of slick marketing, makeup and script writing, stands as a prime example of style over substance. Assassination is what martyred him and one is not allowed to speak ill of establishment "saints".

What a crock.These commentators should try running the Government during a real crisis,if even for only a few hours.Their minds would melt,literally.Kennedy was the best President America ever had.If Lincoln had failed,America would have ended but the world would still have gone on.Not so with Kennedy.

GradyWilson

Most overrated? How about your former boss St. Ronnie?
Didn't he make a treasonous deal with the Iranians to NOT free the hostages while Carter was Pres? Didn't he illegally fund right wing death squads in El Salvador? Didn't he illegally sell arms to Iran to fund his beloved death squads? Didn't he even get the CIA in the cocaine bidness to fund the death squads? Didn't he lie on the stand about all of this?
And you call the Pres who had his brains blown out (most likely by the same CIA) the most overrated while knowing the truth about Reagan's fabricated legacy?

Jeremiah

In all fairness, Dr. Eland also rates Reagan as "bad," assigning him a rank just above Kennedy. I'm not saying that I necessarily endorse his ratings or his rating criteria—just that they're not biased in the exact manner you're probably expecting. Presidents of the founding generation take quite a beating in his book, too—including the deeply disappointing Jefferson, who historians since Henry Adams have rightly accused of dissonance between principles and presidency.

jojo

" JFK/Sorensen, did eventually defuse the greatest security crisis in American and world history – " Nonsense! But it's peachie AOK for America, settling in far away places–guns ablazing. Comment posted about Woodrot Wilson–guy was worse than Jr.Bush.
All on lies!
WWI WWII Japan, Korea, Cambodia, Vetinam, Iraq , Afghastan,Hawaii and now gearing up for Iran.What's next Canada {:^/

I think our Military Industrial Complex prefers to vacation in sunnier climes.

johnc

What about the JFK's lie about there being a "Missile Gap" — a cynical political ploy if there ever was one? I don't consider myself an expert on JFK but I did read Jim Douglas' book and the message I got was that he was a flawed human being who underwent conversion and took a stand for peace. Eland's interpretation/analysis, was for me was thought provoking; here perhaps are some of the demons that come with the pinnacle of political power. I think it is fair to say that JFK was both the most overrated and the most underrated president.